A Very Special Birthday Card

I had a lot of fun making this card for a dear friend's birthday.  She's received a fair bit of my crafty stuff and so I was looking for a special card design.  My mom gave me a store bought mother's day card this year with a huge die cut butterfly 3'd out of the center of the inside.  After thinking how thoughtful the card was, my second thought was - I'm totally scraplifting that idea.  Thus, this card was born.

I stamped the butterfly on white cardstock with black Archival Ink.  I then used my Faded Jeans Distress Marker and a water pen to watercolor the butterfly centers.  A little Wink of Stella glitter brush was used, but the pictures don't do it justice.  This matched the front of the card where I used a larger waterbrush to brush ink before stamping the sentiment in black Archival Ink.

I die cut the butterfly out of the layered portion of the inside to give the impression that the butterfly "emerged" from the card.  I ran the butterfly die through the die cut twice- cutting only half of the image.  This allows the die cut to be visible around the raised die cut.  The centerpiece that pops the butterfly off the card is a 2 in. x 1 1/8 in. rectangle.  I scored the piece 1/4 inch from each end and then again a 1/2 in. from each end.  This created the 1/8in. flat section that the butterfly is adhered to.  I glued the 1/4 in. ends together to create a slightly triangular piece.  The card doesn't lay completely flat- but she didn't mind.

The sentiments are stamped in black Archival ink and then accented with gems.  I'm really pleased how this card turned out. It will be one of my favorites for a long time.

I hope your Saturday is going well.  I'm off to redo the bathroom cabinets.  More of the home reno that started earlier this year. I'm really stretching things out...

I've linked this card up with Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge Blog: Simon Says Anything Goes and Word Art Wednesday's Challenge #194:Anything Goes Family.  Come join the fun or be inspired.